Monday, May 13, 2013

Should We Measure How Smart Processes Really Are?

I think we need to come up with quantifiable or qualifiable measures for how smart processes really are, but I'm not quite sure on the timing. We are moving into the "Era of Smart Processes", but it's not clear how fast we are headed there. I think it would be good to get out in front of the trend and establish some good water marks for intelligence.While it might sound like I am suggesting we solve perpetual motion here, but I think a good place to start is how we measure people:

We measure people's raw intelligence with IQ (intelligent quotient) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient, so we should be able to come up with something on the IQ of a process. This would correlate to the ability of a process to sense patterns, analyze and act on them

We measure people's ability to get along with EQ (emotional quotient aka emotional intelligence) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_intelligence, so we should be able to come up with something that measures relationship behavior. This would correlate to Social interaction ability of a process.

We can also measure how well people accept and embrace change. There are various mechanisms for measuring the ability to change, so we should be able to come up with something that measures agility. This would correlate to the flexibility a process would exhibit.

We can also measure levels of freedom we give people to attained business outcomes on their own without micro management, so we should be able to come up with something that measures delegation levels. This would correlate to the processes / process snippet's autonomy to act on it's own in seeking single or complex goals.

We will do ourselves a level of dis-service by not trying to establish individual or composite measures of intelligence (smartness) for processes in this emerging era of smarter processes. If only for measuring changes from year to year or from implementation version to the implementation version. Do you agree?